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Lawyers Sum Up Case Against Police Captain

A lawyer for Eric Adams, a Police Department captain facing punishment for comments he made on a television program last fall, told a department judge yesterday that the trial "should never have been."

"The crucial question that hangs over this proceeding is, 'Why are we here?' " said the lawyer, Norman Siegel, during closing arguments in the trial. Captain Adams faces internal charges, including speaking without permission about departmental business, for appearing on WCBS-TV on Oct. 16 and saying the city reacted too slowly to a terrorist threat against the transit system a few weeks earlier.

Mr. Siegel said his client had a constitutionally protected right to speak publicly and suggested that charges against Captain Adams were retaliation for his being a "visible and vocal" critic of the department in the past. He said that the department failed to prove that Captain Adams had hurt the department's operations and that, therefore, he deserved no punishment.

But a lawyer for the Police Department, Debbie Coleman, said Captain Adams had "ulterior motives" for making the six-minute television appearance on a Sunday morning. Among them, she said, was furthering his political career.

She said Captain Adams "crossed the line" by using his rank and experience in the Police Department to lend credibility to his claims that the police officers were not deployed correctly at subway stations after city officials announced the Oct. 6 threat.

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In truth, she said, Captain Adams played no part in the department's official process of gathering intelligence, assessing it or making decisions about how to deal with the threat. She called his claims on the program "irresponsible, indeed reckless," and insisted the charges against him were "not retaliation."

The case in the Police Department's trial room, on the fourth floor of police headquarters in Lower Manhattan, has been shot through with politics. Captain Adams says the announcement of the terrorist threat was timed to divert attention away from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's decision to skip a mayoral election debate in Harlem that night.

Captain Adams, one of two executive officers at the Sixth Precinct in Greenwich Village, is a founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, a group that endorsed Fernando Ferrer, Mr. Bloomberg's opponent, in the race. Captain Adams is planning to retire on March 17, after a 22-year-career, to run for a State Senate seat from Brooklyn.

Michael D. Sarner, assistant deputy commissioner for trials, said he would soon have a recommendation for Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. He said the police commissioner would make a decision by March 17. If the charges are upheld, Captain Adams could face punishment as severe as firing, which would put his pension in jeopardy.